As an avid fan of all things nerdy, I have high aspirations of tackling as many forms of new media as I can. It’s a lofty goal, albeit not a very practical one. One of the things that I would like to do more of is write… hence the blog here. I am however an avid reader of various blogs and informational websites. And, I have to admit, I’m smitten with Twitter. It took me a little while to adopt it, but now I’d have to say that it’s one of my favorite forms of social media. Using Digsby on my PC and Twitter Berry for my Blackberry, I’m able to keep up with my menagerie of people that I follow.
From time to time, I even follow people for short amounts of time on a specific topic and then un-follow them when whatever it is that I was interested in learning about has culminated. For example, a few months back when there was the anticipated tsunami that was to hit Hawaii, I followed two Hawaiian residents who were Tweeting regularly from there homes in the islands. Their updates through the (thank goodness) non-event were much more informative and descriptive than any of the major news outlets that were broadcasting on television. So, there’s my plug for Twitter.
Although I have these ambitions of being the Über Media Man, I know it’s not practical, and I’m okay with that. Using Digsby, I am able to monitor quite a bit of media from a single application: five Twitter accounts, two Facebook accounts, one LinkedIn account and three email accounts. In my various interactions with both folks who are equally or more nerdy than myself as well as those less so, I believe that with the variety of applications out there that there is truly the “right” social media tool for just about everyone.
A few of my friends are just prolific with Tumblr. They mix just the right amount of text with some great imagery. I’ve also got some folks that I work with that are just incredible at blogging. Not only can they produce content on a regular basis, it’s thoughtful content. Ironically, one of these bloggers told me just a couple of weeks ago that he just can’t wrap his head around Twitter yet. His admission rather surprised me. To me Twitter is a natural extension for bloggers… another gadget in their utility belt to help spread their message. But, to my point of this post, vive la différence!
To learn more about how some people have segmented different types of social media users, check out the book (and website) Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. It’s primarily targeted for businesses, but its a great read for the individual social media maven too.
So, what’s your social media type?
